One last hurdle

Sunday

There’s a burning feeling inside Jen Dias every time she steps onto the track. It isn’t pressure. It’s not even nerves. What Dias feels each and every time she competes is desire.

There’s a burning feeling inside Jen Dias every time she steps onto the track.

It isn’t pressure.

It’s not even nerves.

What Dias feels each and every time she competes is desire.

She needs to do better. She needs to improve on her last performance.It’s what pushes her.

It’s what defines her.

And it’s what has made her one of the most successful track and field stars to come out of Taunton.

“I like the challenge of [track],” Dias said on Friday. “It’s not a team sport. It’s a personal challenge every time. You always have to perform.”

Dias made sure each time she competed for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, she was doing it to the best of her abilities. And boy did she.

When Dias walked across the stage Saturday with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering, she had already left her mark on the track and field program.

In four years, she’s captured 15 school records between indoor and outdoor track. She’s been named the Liberty League Track Performer of the Year six times and could make it seven when the league votes in a few weeks.

Dias added to her already impressive resume on Friday by winning the 400-meter hurdles at the 2007 EACs Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championship in New York.

She’s faced every challenge, every race head on and been a winner.Yet, Dias isn’t satisfied.

There’s that burning feeling still inside her.

“I always wanted to do better, really focusing on my times and places every since the beginning,” Dias explained. “I was always competitive at heart and I always wanted to strive to be the best.”

The three-time National All-American in the 400-meter hurdles will have a shot at being the best in her event this week when she makes her fourth appearance in the NCAA Championship. The meet begins on Thursday with trials in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

“I never thought in my wildest dreams she’d reach this level,” her mother, Lolita Dias said. “My original aspiration was she’d give it more attention than I did. It’s been great she’s been able to embrace track and field the way she has.”

After graduating from Taunton High in 2003, Dias had hopes of a successful run in college track and field.

It didn’t take her long to make a name for herself.

She qualified for the NCAA Championship her freshman year in the 400-meter hurdles and finished seventh.

Dias worked to do better the following year and she accomplished that feat by placing fourth in the nation.

Again she turned the focus of her junior year to improving and again she moved up. This time she came in second among the top 400-meter hurdlers in the nation.

“She wasn’t disappointed, but she wasn’t satisfied either,” RPI head coach Colin Tory said. “She always is finding something she can do a little bit better. Last year at Nationals, it was a real breakthrough moment for her.”

Her eyes this Saturday in the finals of the 400-meter hurdles will be on the finish line. Her heart will be on reaching that finish line first.

“I am [confident] because I feel like it’s my time,” she said. “Ever since last year, I feel like it’s my time. I don’t mean to be cocky. It’s what I want to do and if it doesn’t happen, it’s not because I didn’t try my hardest.”

Leading up to the biggest race of her career, Dias isn’t nervous.

She’s confident.

That confidence has built up over the years.

Dias first started running as a fifth grader at Martin Middle School.

It was a “family thing.”

Her mother, Lolita, ran at Taunton High and even organized a 5K road race in Taunton. Lolita’s brother Martin Dias was also a Tiger track and field member. Even Lolita’s mother — Dias’ grandmother — Arneda Honeycutt was into running.

Former head coach Bob Lane helped Dias grow as a runner at Taunton High. He also helped Lolita develop into a coach. She directed Dias for a few of her high school years.

“He was a key person in our lives,” Lolita said of Lane.

Lolita’s impact on her daughter can’t be measured.

Not only did Lolita introduce Dias to the sport, she shared her passion for it with her.

“I made it a lot more exciting for her by always encouraging her to be a part of it and taking it more seriously than I did,” Lolita said.

At almost every race, Lolita was there to cheer on Dias.

“She would always be right there,” Dias recalled. “She’d be on the track if she could. She’d say, ‘Get out there. You got it.’ All that encouragement in my face all the time.

“From her establishing that drive in me, it would come back [each race]. I’d hear ‘you’ve got to do this’ — always that little voice.”

Dias will surely have “that little voice” chiming in when she runs in the biggest race of her life.